“The contestants have accused producers of conducting a “cruel and inhumane” scheme to exploit them for ratings by illegally digging up their arrest histories and using the records to humiliate them on national TV.

The contestants’ lawyer claims the show used the arrest info to make his clients appear to be “violent criminals, liars and sexual deviants” … when they weren’t. In fact, none had ever even been convicted of the charges stemming from their arrests.

Worse, the lawyer claims ONLY black people were ever probed about their alleged criminal pasts … never white people.”

The lawyer also claims that the show “never once publicly disqualified a white or non-black American Idol contestant in the history of the eleven season production.”

The former contests are seeking damages of $25 million each. The popular singing competition wrapped Season 12 in May.